Arachnids comprise one of the most diverse groups of animals, with numerous representatives in all terrestrial ecosystems. Aside from Acari (mites and ticks), whose total estimated diversity might reach up to one million species, the orders Araneae (spiders) and Opiliones (harvestmen or daddy longlegs) are the most diverse arachnid lineages. The main goal of this project is to carry out taxonomic revisions (monographs) of several lineages across selected Neotropical groups in two arachnid orders (Araneae [spiders] and Opiliones [daddy long legs]). The groups that we have targeted in this proposal are mainly leaf litter inhabitants (except for mimetids), grossly undersampled and understudied, that lack modern revisionary work and include many undescribed taxa at the species level and above, and thus provide excellent research and training opportunities in modern monography and systematics. The largely overlapping Neotropical distribution of our study groups allows us to effectively collect these arachnids in joint field expeditions. Some of these study taxa also pose similar biogeographic and evolutionary questions that can be addressed with common methodology and expertise.
To carry out our research and training goals we have assembled a team of scientists with diverse backgrounds in systematics and arachnology and a demonstrated history of successful collaborative research efforts. Combining research efforts to tackle these taxonomic problems provides the empirical basis for our multi-ordinal and multidisciplinary approach for training doctoral students in the broadest possible way. Lab rotations and collaboration among the multiple investigators participating in the projects, in addition to the joint field expeditions, also contribute to this synergism. Research results will be disseminated in high impact portals such as Encyclopedia of Life and Tree of Life. Online interactive identification tools will also be produced.
This award was aimed at understanding the biological and evolutionary diversity of arachnids in the Neotropical region to be used as models for studying dispersal and vicariance—the evolutionary process linked to the movement of continental landmasses. We collected many species in Neotropical rainforests in Brazil and Panama and obtained museum samples from all Mesoamerica from other NSF-funded projects. We identified more than 50 new species of arachnids and described several new species and a new genus—we are currently working on describing several other new species and genera and are writing a book on the Daddy-long-legs of the Reserva Sucke, near Manaus. We provided a first evolutionary tree to understand the relationships of the species and the regions they inhabit, a tree that we continue refining with all the new data we recently acquired in an additional field trip. We also developed new techniques to image the genitalia (the male spermatopositor organ and the female ovipositor) using autofluorescence of the chitin naturally found in these structures. The project trained numerous undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, both in the US and from the Latin-American countries that host most of the diversity of the animal groups studied. The project has strengthen our international collaborations, allowing us, for example, to easily exchange specimens with Brazil, something that was nearly impossible only a few years ago due to strict regulations in biodiversity research. We have also benefited from exchanges and cross-training of students between both countries. Finally, we have given public lectures about the work developed under this grant, including a talk to a riverine rural community living upriver in the Rio Negro, Brazil, where we gathered most children and a large number of adults in the local church to share our knowledge with their local arachnofauna.
